17:00
Newby, who has never been above the third rung, does the four tall posts one rung at a time with a report from each, taking eleven minutes, with Shivvy holding the bottom. Comes down shaking and says "I still don't do ladders."
2 fluffs tell this minute. None of them saw the same one.
There were four posts on the long bend taller than the rest, and by six o'clock they were the only empty hooks left on the whole path, and you need somebody light with long arms at the top of a ladder.
Everybody looked at me, because I am exactly that shape.
"I don't do ladders," I said. Which is true, and is also the sentence I say about a great many things, and which I have got rather good at hearing come out of my own mouth.
"One rung," I said. "I'll do one rung and then I'll say."
Later I went up the long bend with Newby, who has never been above the third rung of a ladder in an entire life, and held the bottom of it while Newby did the four tall posts one rung at a time with a report from every single rung. It took eleven minutes. I did not mind. I have been the one who needs eleven minutes.
